Sostenibilidad medioambiental de la ganadería de ovino

Abstract

The FAO report on the environmental impact of livestock (Steinfeld et al., 2006), generatedan important debate within the scientific community, and even into the society in the current context of climate change. However, in this debate it is necessary to broaden the focus of the environmental implications of sheep and highlight a series of particularities of this sector in relation to other livestock activities, such as the environmental context in which it is developed, the resources used and the production systems. Because sheep farming has traditionally been developed on the basis of grazing resources located in different environments and at different altitudes, so that in addition to producing food (milk, meat) or wool, leather, etc. they have contributed to the generation of a series of positive environmental, social and cultural externalities (Bataglini et al., 2014, Dyrmunsson et al., 2004, Rodriguez et al., 2014), which have been called ecosystem services (Costanza et al. al., 1997). In this paper, the main environmental implications of sheep farming are presented.